the good son

Mertsie-Beth looks after her husband’s invalid mother. When she’s not working at the Med Supply or getting her hair done up like Jackie O or doing the hundred other things she thinks up to do to keep from tending to an octogenarian’s bed sores.

Eddie says she drugs the old lady with benadryl and pays a 12 year old neighbor 2 bucks an hour to sit by the bedside and watch soap operas and call her if she dies. He says Mertsie-Beth’s husband knows about it too, but he pretends like he doesn’t because he’s what they call a good son.

Eddie sells hospital beds and hydraulic lifts two aisles over and thinks he’s Italian because his last name says he should be. He says he likes me but I can’t bring myself to be moved by him. His head is too big and he has no hair.